Most of the equipment you acquire in Hyper Light Breaker is sourced from vendors in the Hub, but you can create the items they sell for a lot less. When you give gifts to these NPC vendors, you unlock additional features in their shops and lower the prices of their goods. By making various gear cheaper, you can craft a more powerful build before venturing back into the Overgrowth.
While exploring the Overgrowth, you might come across some vendors. These characters usually offer strong items in exchange for Bright Blood, but you can never know in advance where these vendors will appear. Much like the game’s world, the location of vendors changes each time you play, making it challenging to build rapport with them.
Understanding Vendor Affinity in Hyper Light Breaker
Vendor Affinity is the friendship level between you and a vendor in Hyper Light Breaker. As you gather the necessary resources, you unlock different vendor characters over time in the Hub world before heading into the Overgrowth. Fortunately, the two shops that are initially unavailable only require 12 Material to unlock, which is easily collectible during your early runs.
Material acts as a form of currency in Hyper Light Breaker, enabling you to enhance your character’s stats and unlock new abilities. You can find this Material in Stashes or by collecting four Core Shards, which will automatically convert into a Core when combined.
Whenever you interact with a vendor, you can view their items, prices, and affinity levels. Vendor Affinity starts at 0 and resets between Cycles, which refers to the periods when the Overgrowth resets after you lose all your Rezes. Since you have a total of four Rezes, or "lives," your vendor affinity could reset much faster than you anticipate.
Having an affinity of 0 with an NPC means their prices will be significantly higher for any items they offer. As a result, acquiring gear, weapons, or upgrades will consume a lot of Bright Blood and Material during your initial attempts. However, as you progress, you’ll unlock various methods to enhance a vendor’s shop, providing new services and lowering the costs of certain items.
Tips to Increase Vendor Affinity (Make Items Cheaper)
You can boost your affinity with vendors by giving Gold Rations to any vendor in the Hub. While this doesn’t apply to vendors found in the Overgrowth, any Hub vendor will be pleased to receive a Gold Ration in Hyper Light Breaker. These gifts not only help reduce item prices but also expand the services offered at their stores.
Gold Rations are typically reserved for permanent Pherus Bit upgrades that persist across runs. You can acquire them by ranking up after successfully completing a Cycle or by exploring challenging Labs in the Overgrowth. When you have extra Rations, consider offering them to a vendor whose stock you need for your next adventure.
It’s wise to increase affinity with vendors you frequently visit for your current character build. For instance, if you’re focusing on a melee build, prioritize increasing your relationship with the Blades vendor in the Hub.
Here are some potential upgrades to a vendor’s store that may become available as you improve their affinity:
- Unlock Gear Upgrading
- All Gear 10% Cheaper
- One Random Item 10% Off
The benefits of enhanced vendor affinity grow as your relationship with certain NPCs deepens. If you’re playing in co-op mode in Hyper Light Breaker, you’ll likely notice these high-tier affinity bonuses more often, as it’s generally easier to gather Gold Rations in a group.
The ability to upgrade your gear requires a higher affinity with a vendor. This means some of the best builds in the game depend on the affinity system, making it crucial for more than just making items cheaper. Although the rogue-like nature of Hyper Light Breaker will render some gear obsolete over time, it becomes much easier to find reliable equipment when you can upgrade it through vendors.
Once items are more affordable, you can allocate the currency you gather during runs toward various upgrades. Investing in improved gear or enhanced character stats will allow you to develop far stronger builds in Hyper Light Breaker as vendor prices decrease.